About Vali Maties
Vali Maties is a Romanian software developer with over 25 years of experience in the IT sector. Born on January 18, 1982, he currently serves as Head of IT at Insta Electric, a Swiss-Romanian technology company based in Romania. His career spans enterprise software development, systems architecture, and user-focused application design.
In addition to his technical work, Vali is a passionate musician and arranger keyboard enthusiast. He currently plays a Yamaha Genos2 and Korg Pa5X, having previously worked with Tyros2, Tyros5, Genos1, Pa2X Pro, and Pa3X. His combined expertise in software engineering and music production led to the development of tools specifically designed for Yamaha arranger users.
One of his most notable projects is YEM-CE (YEM Content Explorer), a utility created to extend the capabilities of Yamaha Expansion Manager. Developed in response to the evolving needs of the PSR Tutorial community, YEM-CE introduces advanced features such as merging voice elements across packs and exporting samples from installed voices and drum kits. The upcoming version 3 continues this trajectory with expanded functionality for sound customization and pack management.
Vali Maties (valimaties) is a valued member of the PSR Tutorial Forum, where he actively contributes insights and support to fellow musicians and developers. His YouTube channel features demonstrations, tutorials, and music-related content. His current Yamaha keyboards related software are hosted on MVSoft, with a new platform in development at MV Music & Soft SRL, which will offer expanded tools and resources for the arranger keyboard community.
Available Utilities
YEM CE
The software was initially developed to extract voice data from PPF files, including parameters like Name, MSB, LSB, and Program Change, and convert them into a format compatible with Style Magic YA and Midi Works YA.
Yamaha Playlist Manager
Yamaha Playlist Manager is a Java-based tool for creating, editing, sorting, and batch-processing playlist records (RGT files) for Yamaha keyboards (Genos, PSR-SX, etc.).
Style OTS Replacer
Style OTS Replacer is a lightweight Windows tool for Yamaha keyboard users to batch-replace OTS (One Touch Setting) sections in style files, with optional voice conversion via a mapping file.
Journey in Music
I started playing the accordion when I was eight years old, and I played it for a couple of years. At the age of 10, my father bought me a Casio SA20, a very small keyboard, but with some nice voices for those times. The next year he bought me a Yamaha PSS-380 (second hand), which was the start of my love for the Yamaha brand.
Unfortunately, in a couple of months, the linear switches in the center of the keyboard became unusable (a common issue for those keyboards). And in a couple of months, I bought my new keyboard, which was a Korg is50B, and I used it for a couple of years.
After some time, I needed a change, I felt it, and I sold my car to buy a brand new Tyros2. This was the queen for me. My first keyboard with real sampling, I could feel the beauty of the SA voices, the MegaVoices in styles, and I could build my styles in a very easy way compared to what I had in the past. I sold it after a couple of years (5, I think) because the trend in my country was the Korg PA2X Pro, and there was a lot of new shared content for this brand here in Southeast Europe, so I had to take this step. This keyboard showed me some new editable parameters directly in the keyboard, and also the style creator was much more user-friendly than Yamaha's, with a lot of things that Yamaha does not make available in the user interface; you must do them with software.
After a year or two, the need for new features coming with the PA3X made me change my PA2X Pro for this one, so I jumped to the newest version from this brand. But this model had a lot of issues with freezing during real-time play (at gigs). So this was a pain for me and a disappointment with the Korg brand, which made me switch back to Yamaha.
The new model coming on the market from Yamaha at that time was the Tyros 5, a revolution in Yamaha's arranger (the first time Yamaha Expansion Manager was introduced). It was the first time in Romania that a direct distributor of Yamaha products in Romania organized a presentation for this keyboard and brought Peter Baartmans (RIP).
It was love at first sight for me; the sound of the new Tyros 5, the options you had, were incredible for me at that time. So, yeah, I changed the Korg Pa3X for a brand new T5. I played with it for many years and started to create software for Yamaha.
It was the time when the first version of YEM-CE appeared. Studying how YEM works, what is available to users (ppf content) and what is not (cpf content), made me research more and more.
I found interesting software, like Style Magic YA, which brought a lot of opportunities to users regarding styles, then all of Jorgen's software, Murray Best's registration manager, and then MixMaster. All these software made my music job easier.
Also, my software upgraded to version 2, changing the programming language, with a new interface, closer to the original YEM's, because I didn't want users to learn two different UIs. If they were used to YEM's interface, then with my software it would be the same thing, only with some extra menus or some new features. So, yeah, that is what I have been doing over time.
When the Genos 1 arrived, I was shocked! I loved the new black look, the new display, the amazing new sound, and the new OS look was stunning. So, what do you think? Sure, I changed my keyboard again, Tyros 5 for a new Genos 1. This new keyboard made me build the Genos Playlist Manager software.
It was my start learning Java. So, using the Eclipse development IDE, I made this little software, with a look like Genos's display (😊). I always tried to maintain the look of the original functionality. If it looks like this on the keyboard, it should look like this on the computer as well, because it is easier for the user to achieve things. After the PSR-SX came out, the name of this software was changed to Yamaha Playlist Manager.
After that, a new demand from a user on PSRTutorial was to be able to change OTS for multiple styles. This made me research the style composition and build the Style OTS Replacer. This one helped me gain some other skills in a newer programming language. I wanted it to be more friendly to me as a programmer and to the user with a new look and feel. Using XML behind the scenes, it was simpler to build the UI.
After a long time of programming YEM CE from scratch, v3 was definitely built to be a multi-platform application, unlike v2, which was built only for Windows. Version 3 was intended to work on Mac as well. I also recorded some videos about the new features that v3 came with and posted them on my YouTube channel; however, when the build process came to an end, I found that the cross-platform programming language build process had some issues, making my app crash. This was my deep disappointment. With an open issue about my build process on the GitHub page of the framework, I will wait for the issue to be solved to be able to build v3 and launch it for all Yamaha users. I will keep waiting for it.
-- Vali Maties --